Fanaa

Well, if you have had that experience you will know what I am talking about. The character of Zooni is straight out of Bronte sisters' romantic novels. The strong willed, intelligent girl out to meet her prince, the supportive mother, the mysterious and charming lover, the lonely house in the middle of nowhere, the retired colonel as the only family friend who sometimes comes and shares a drink with the father; it's all there.

Fanaa is one of the most intense romantic movies to have come out of Bollywood for a long time. Perhaps, since Silsila. The pairing of two of the best actors of our generation (maybe, perhaps of all time) needed a story just like Fanaa. You need to scratch the surface to reveal the passion of this unique love story.

The director, Kunal Kohli has exploited the potential of this pairing admirably. Look at the picturisation of the song 'Dekho Na'. The camera hardly seems to move away from the two faces. There are innumerable scenes in the film where just these two faces share the screen.It is hard to think of any other actors from the present who would be able to pull off such a form of narration. Ultimately, the film belongs to Zooni and Kajol comes out with her best performance to date. Rehan asks, "KOI KISISE ITNA PYAR KAISE KAR SAKTA HAI?" and it shows in Zooni's eyes. What a role to make a come back and what a performance to make a comeback! And Aamir never ceases to surprise. He holds his own in a story primarily about Zooni and complements her character brilliantly. His performance is so amazingly understated, and yet so powerful. Rehan is one of the most complex and difficult characters played by Aamir. And it's all about the characters of Rehan and Zooni, their ideals, their emotions, their dreams and their passion. It's really like reading a 19th century English novel. It is not easy to narrate a story this way in a mainstream film and this is where the narration stumbles. The scene where Rehan takes Zooni from the train and carries her in his arms looks very cliché and awfully out of place. The tag line '.....TERE ISHQ MEIN MERI JAAN FANAA HO JAYE' is repeated to death in the film. There have been some cinematic liberties taken in the screenplay, like Rehan infiltrating the Indian Army, Zooni fumbling with the radio transmitter and speaking to the right people. The Urdu couplets, although all very good, seem to hold back the flow a bit. Also, the discussion on the political history of Kashmir at the meeting of the Intelligence Heads seems a bit off track. A better place to put that discussion would have been a friendly chat between Rehan and Zulfi (Zooni's father)over a drink.

But these are minor skirmishes in a remarkable film. The story remains true to the title of the film and if you have a liking for 19th century English novels, you would simply love this one.

The second half of this movie seems to be largely inspired by "Eye of the Needle" which I had watched twenty years back. It starred Donald Sutherland. "Eye of the Needle" has the backdrop of World War II. A German spy gets marooned on a desolate British island colony, probably Gibraltar. He falls in love with a woman who stays on the island with her crippled husband and their son. She too falls for the hero. When she learns about the hero being a spy she mercilessly shoots him. The tag-line of the movie ran like 'it is easy to love an enemy but difficult to kill a lover' (not verbatim). Replace the island by Kashmir made inaccessible in winter. Replace the German spy by lost husband terrorist. Crippled husband by alcoholic father. Presto, you get "Fanaa".

The story writer (who won a Filmfare award for this movie!) owes us an explanation.

It tickled me no end to read some viewers comment that a Kashmiri Muslim girl fell in love and allowed a man to bed her in a span of 8 days romance. They thought it slightly implausible. This might have held true for some two decades back but not nowadays. We have to understand Zooni (Kajol) came from a fairly modern family (she was no village bumpkin) in the movie and the apple of her parents eye. More so because she was blind and her mother always encouraged her to look forward to her Prince Charming the day he arrived. She was this inexperienced girl full of ideas of romance and blind to boot and Aamirs winsome voice and poetry won her over and she just went into the relationship headstrong girl that she was knowing and accepting that there might never be anything permanent (she just wanted to live for those 8 days she was able to be romanced by the person she was besotted with) a very common occurrence actually in todays scenario.

The story of a man torn between love and duty might be hackneyed but I sure as hell didn't know how it was all going to end and was eager to sit through the whole film and watch it to the very end. I don't know how some people thought the first 90 minutes was horrible and the rest even more so! I found the first half extremely entertaining and the second half was a pleasure to watch just for the sheer pleasure of watching two very high class actors perform as they never have.

Kunal Kohli is an extremely sensitive director and while there may have been slip ups in pace here and there (it was an emotional rather than an action packed movie after all) on the whole the movie shows a director of competence and someone who has a very bright future.

The cinematography is breathtaking and the supporting cast of Rishi Kapoor and Tabu adds to the movies worth. Rishi especially is brilliant.

But the movies strongest point is the performance of the two lead actors especially Kajol who had the more author backed role. Kajol and Aamirs chemistry leave you wondering WHY they never acted together before. And they look so good its hard to imagine Kajols a mom and Aamir a divorced dad of two.

Fanaa- This truly is a good movie- not just in the entertaining sense. There are a few bloopers, of course, but they may be easily overlooked, an easy enough thing for sensible and regular watchers of Indian cinema.

True, Aamir and Kajol have performed brilliantly, the cinematography is excellent and the music heavenly. The background scores are worth more than a mention.

But the movie goes deeper and makes one think about the power of love and our utter helplessness before it... how it shapes one's life and choices. The importance of choice is given the limelight in this movie- the choices that are so unique and personal to each of us, given the same situation. It also asks, importantly, how much can love forgive?

Put yourself in the place of these characters as you watch the movie and see how much is asked of you at each step, what strength is required to make the choices they make.

This movie, in some ways, is a lesson in love. It puts to shame our cautiousness, rigid moral standards, emotional walls etc in love. You cannot walk into love with tiny steps, wearing a steel armor and praying not to get hurt. There is no such thing as going too fast or too slow, or all these clichés we've come up with to explain relationships :)

To love, you truly HAVE to be free. At heart.

Title "FANAA"....as it says "Destroyed in Love"...well suits the theme.

Rehan (Aamir Khan) is on a mission where he meets Zooni (Kajol), playing a role of a blind girl who is on a visit to Delhi for the performance. The story starts with them falling in love with each other. The dialog here are very interesting especially for Hindi / Urdu poetry lovers. It is a beautiful expression of exchanging their feelings in enchanting words…truly mesmerizing. The viewers who are enthralled by this love story in the first half are astonished to see the twist of the second half. Here comes the silent message and the sad end (as the name suggests) where Zooni has to choose between right or wrong, between the life with her son and lover/husband who has returned after years or the country's wellbeing that is in danger if Rehan succeeds in his plan. Zooni chooses the right thing as taught by her parents.

Over all, it is a good plot, well written and well directed. It is a love story with a twist finally depicting that the love for the truth and for the country is far greater then one's personal feeling. As mentioned, there is always a choice between good and bad but what defines one's life is the right choice.

Lyrics are very melodious and the music is also very good that gifts us the hit song of the month "Chand..."